Three studies find that thousands of genetic variants probably contribute

By Laura Sanders, 16:55 PM July 1, 2009

Large collections of common genetic variants, rather than the harmful actions of just a few key mutations, probably predispose people to schizophrenia, three large genetic studies suggest.

The studies, all published online July 1 in Nature, sifted through mountains of genetic data from patients with schizophrenia and people without the disease looking for spelling differences in the sequence of letters that make up the genome. The studies also turned up specific chromosome regions that pr...